Medvedev: Operation against Georgia 'absolutely timely'

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the operation to force Georgia to stop the aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008 was 'absolutely timely'. He said assertions about a delay were a lie, Russian news agency (Itar-Tass) reported Thursday. "All decisions that were necessary were made precisely when they had to be made," Medvedev told the media Wednesday. "I believe that these decisions concerned a foreign state that until August 26 we recognised as Georgia. Yes, we had relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but we called for restoration of territorial integrity even though we understood that it was practically impossible. "These decisions could be made only in the event of direct aggression against Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers. This happened on the night from August 7 to August 8. I can tell you that I made the decision two and a half hours after the Georgian army had started its actions: neither earlier because it would be have been wrong since it was the decision to use the Russian Armed Forces in foreign territory, nor later," the prime minister said. He admitted that he was surprised by comments made by some of the former military commanders about the events in South Ossetia in a film circulated on the Internet, who claimed that it had taken too much time to make the decision. "I did not see that film but I saw some comments and pieces on the Internet. I do not know who authored or who ordered it. In fact it features some generals who had been either dismissed from the Armed Forces by the time of South Ossetian events or were in active duty, but it's hard for me to comment on the motives for their interviews." "I was surprised by some comments that it took so long to make the decision. That's a lie! I made the decision to deliver a missile strike at 4 a.m. Those who say otherwise either do not know the real facts or intentionally distort (them) even if they were in service at that time," he said. The prime minister stressed that he was responsible for the decision, the Itar-Tass report said. "There is only one person who makes such decisions and that person was me - the supreme commander-in-chief and president of the country. No other consultations on this issue could be conducted and none were. As for my discussions with Vladimir Putin, I talked with him for the first time on the evening of August 8," he said, adding that Putin, who was Prime Minister at that time, was in Beijing at the opening of the Olympic Games.